Bulletin-board material

¡Hola! “The Bullpen” here. Tim is busy making final preparations for this weekend, when he will make the soon-to-be Mrs. TT the actual Mrs. TT. But as always, he has one eye on the standings and one ear tuned to Uke and Joe Block calling the games, and asked me to remind our readers that the Crew continues to steamroll through September.

Entering this weekend’s series in Washington, D.C., the Crew has won four straight (including a road sweep of the all-but-left-for-dead Pittsburgh Pirates) and now are an astounding 23-6 over the past month and trail the St. Louis Cardinals by 2.5 games for the second wild card slot. Unfortunately, the Cards are equally as hot, just completing a sweep of the lowly Houston Astros.

A couple weeks ago, most people had already written off the Brewers’ 2012 season in favor of the NFL season, yard work and anything else that doesn’t involve investing three hours on a weeknight only to watch/listen to the late-inning relievers blow leads like it’s going out of style. I was even headed in that direction myself, and casually mentioned that to Tim. He turned our discussion into a Peace & Glove post that drew some interesting comments.

It seems that despite, at that time, being four games behind St. Louis, many were eager to read the 2012 Crew’s eulogy. Some examples:

“They've been out of it since mid-July. You all keep enjoying the Kool-Aid though.”

“Back to normal fair-weathered attendance...and yes...they're done.”

“The reality is that the Brewers have as much chance of getting a Wild Card spot as you have of writing sports for the Chicago Tribune. You might be better served writing about your hopes and dreams for next season.”

In team sports, this is called “bulletin-board material.” In the days when the daily newspaper was king, comments from an opposing team’s coaching staff or players were cut from the paper and posted in the locker room in an attempt to remind the team they had been disrespected and to inspire them to go out there and beat the pants off of said opponent.

Tim took the above comments and posted them in our virtual P&G locker room for much the same reason – to remind us that although many so-called fans (and, of course, the legions of haters) have written off the Crew this year, there are many of us who will cheer our team until the final out of the final game.

If the Brewers ultimately miss out on a playoff spot, fans at the very least should take note of the names who have proven themselves as MLB-worthy players and will be in line for a starting job in 2013 – newer names like Segura, Maldonado, Peralta and Fiers, as well as familiar faces like Lucroy and Gomez, who have enjoyed breakout seasons in 2012. It appears that those guys, along with a number of rising minor-league stars, will keep the Crew competitive for years to come.

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. Thirteen games to go – the next seven on the road, followed by six at home. The Cards play the Cubs this weekend, leaving Brewers fans in that always-awkward “must root for the Cubs, even if it hurts” position. Can the Crew pull it off? Will they? Add your two cents in the comments section, and leave good tidings for the happy couple!